August 09, 2012 Y. Sunita Chowdary
The main reason why the class audiences flock to the theatres for a Trivikram film is because he never fails them. His dialogues are like the sprinkling of cashewnuts in a dish, now how palatable is the film depends on the amount of sprinkling in it, here it is just sporadic. Also there is a good amount of messages drilled and weaved into the narration which makes you nod in affirmation.
The film Julayi is a mixture of some brain and brawn but mostly the latter dominates the story. The hero is shown as having an extra ordinary common sense who can think, predict and speak logic with such confidence and conviction that people who are used to customary thinking could be swayed with his arguments.
According to the auteur anyone who can allign the cube in the right colours is super smart. Wonder why when bestowed with such IQ Ravi couldn't make anything of his life and uses it instead to make fun of his father. Ravi (Arjun) doesn't believe in a life filled with effort and sweat and is waiting for that right opportunity to make it big but life throws him in a series of incidents where he is given the responsibility of safeguarding the future of thousands of depositors in a bank. How he does it forms the rest of the story.
There are a few scenes that look repetitive and make you yawn like Ravi predicting that the villains will not take a particular route and go on the other side instead. His voice suddenly turning hoarse is a straight lift from Nikesha and Pawan Kalyan scene from Puli. The film completely holds your focus on action alone, you wouldn't care for the romantic part at all.
On a particular occasion when he challenges a villain to kill Madhu (Ileana), you agree with him and wouldn't mind seeing her bumped off seriously. Trivikram succeeds in that part, otherwise Arjun and Ileana's chemistry and the pairing didn't work. Ileana is good at giving an irritated expression with glasses on her nose and she repeats it like a duck takes to water. The dances are not heavy duty for once and it is easy on the eyes and for the hero it's a cake walk. Songs are just okay.
Udaya Bhanu is far better as an item girl than the foreign girls who are flooding the Telugu market, though her face is clearly not exploited even in one scene. Only when the rest of the characters are comical, silly does the hero's character elevate so we have Rajendra Prasad, MS Narayana, Brahmanandam who take away the attention from violence. Rao Ramesh has a surprise angle and does his part well and Tanikella Bharani is a right choice for the father's role.
Sonu Sood does what he is expected of and is pretty good at his work. The girl who expresses in a muted mode gives a feeling that she will change the course of the story but she suddenly dissapears. Julayi is an average film and makes a good watch. Though the romantic episodes are tedious and Arjun looks uncomfy in it, he excells in the action scenes and the rest of the film.
Trivikram strips the hero of his extra frills and energy and gives him a right balance and direction to move the story ahead smoothly. Julayi is in a true sense an action entertainer, it doesn't have bombastic dialogues of mass heroes but you will not miss the unmistakable focus of the hero in attaining his three goals. Commercially the film should do well but it is not Trivikram's best either.
